All Stations, All Stations, this is March Warden. It's good to be back from the dead. Please take this peace offering and review it. I'm looking to make more of these, what do you think? MarchWarden, OVER.
The woods of northern Anima are an isolating place. The rocky, hilly terrain and plentiful vegetation divide each valley and vale into its own world, and trap the moisture in, so that every morning smells like wet earth, pine needles, and iron. The vast majority of it is traversed only by dirt roads, with few major rail lines connecting larger settlements.
The Kaolin Hole was one such rail interchange station, placed deep within the heart of northern Anima, directly north of Windpath, and northeast of Lake Matsu. A small group of cities had grown up around the station and thrived off of the tourism and trade done around there. It was one of these small cities, named Firewood, that the Assignor had asked ACRN to meet him at.
Ren strode along the scuffed and dim housing Kaolin had for the cargo cars of the incoming trains, accompanied by Cardin Winchester, the owner of the vehicle they had brought for travel along the rugged firebreaks of Anima.
Both had dressed for the occasion. Cardin wore heavy No. 5 duck coveralls over his loam painted armor, stained with the labor of many hours in cold climates, and various stains related to the labor of the table as well. His long mace was slung across his back. Ren was dressed more formally but with only a touch more color, in a rich green Nehru jacket over a rose dress shirt, covered mostly by a long greatcoat he had partially unbuttoned.
The housing was dirty and cuttingly cold in the way that only still air can be. To Ren's nose it smelled of oil and ice, and he could hear the chickadees fluttering and tittering about somewhere above the main three cars held by this particular compartment. An assortment of laborers in tan and black cotton twill parkas with reflective stripes passed back and forth between the first car and a pull cart, carrying bulk totes.
"Second Car" Ren said, pointing to a vaguely truck shaped object shrink wrapped in shiny white on the autorack behind the first car.
Cardin called over a worker, and pointed out his car. They had a brief conversation and before long arrangements were made to get the car down. They were directed to the housing lobby to wait the obligatory half hour for any auto service.
The lobby was a gray carpeted green walled cube with coffee and news. Cardin took a seat and a styrofoam cup. Ren sat down and ran a quick glance over the newspaper stacks for something of note.
"... It looks like the old SDC is down half a percent today in light of the recent organized crime in Aarde province of Vacuo. The country's senate continues to refuse the SDC's aid offers, in favor of their own struggling law enforcement. Similarly, continuing pressure by the Independance Party on Mistral's Chief Council has led to the Imperial Gendarmerie to dismiss all SDC close air support aid from the provinces of Crown and Hood, further compounding this issue. In other news, Oscar Pine has announced a new initiative for the coordination of huntsmen across the map. This announcement has caused an increase in most food processing companies' stock prices…"
Ren tuned out the TV and picked up the nearest The Times from the coffee table, featuring an artwork of Robyn Hill in a business suit looking pointedly away from a burning globe, above which the headline read, "The (Third) Atlas Crisis".
"Anything I should know about the state of things, Ren." Cardin asked from the coffee maker.
"Nothing of note." Ren said, rubbing the back of his head, and putting the magazine back in its stack.
Cardin nodded, his Garibaldi beard touching his chest as he cautiously observed brown liquid begin pouring into the pot.
"Figured. We better be getting to this restaurant sometime soon, I'm starving."
"The others are getting food."
"Yeah, but I'm a growing boy, Ren." Cardin laughed. "I need all my calories."
"Growing sideways," Ren pointed out deadpan, picking up a copy of The International Landscape featuring a picture of three olive green Paladins walking in a harvested cornfield at dusk, headlined "Vale and Vacuo: Post-Crisis Tension".
He opened the magazine.
There was a loud click and a light breath of cool, exhaust laden air. Ren looked up. Neptune stood in the doorway triumphantly holding a greasy paper bag emblazoned with the image of a chicken with a paintbrush.
"SuperSmashBeef!" Cardin boomed, "It's good to be back in Mistral."
"You want it?" Neptune asked, beginning to back out the door, "Come get it."
"We haven't gotten the car yet!" Cardin called as he raced towards the door, knocking a chair over in his hurry.
Ren stood, and followed Cardin out the door.
Neptune stepped out of the aging worn work truck with a sigh, and began to stretch in front of the door. Jaune got out the other side. Firewood was one of the smallest towns Neptune had ever been to, but he always enjoyed returning to it. It was one of those rural towns that was composed of a town square, some form of public education building, an auto shop and a truck stop some ten miles away. Somehow the orbital farmhouses were included in the total population, which managed to raise it into the mid fifties, and then they got a permit from their own city hall to include chickens and dogs in the population count, and so they were able to put up a sign that said "Firewood–Population: 500"
The way that everyone stared at him, and the dogs barked at him never really got old. Even in the isolated backwoods of Mistral, where deer faunus are as populous as humans, and some new age group is out in the forest conducting debaucheries every night, blue hair and goggles were still not seen every Tuesday. He was proud of being the one to bring popular culture to these 'hicks out in the boonies'. He loved the way someone's face lit up when he gave them the newest CD from heartland Minstral, because he saw that their day was going a little rough.
To be honest, the stares could have been because of the way that he dressed, he thought, as he jogged over to his team on their way across Firebreak 6 to the only restaurant in town, The Buttered Skillet. Neptune noticed the Assignor's car parked outside, a newer model of luxury car, that had been customized to install a two way radio and to improve the engine. He had insisted on having it painted the Mistrali national color of sky blue, which made it abundantly obvious to both his employees and ordinary people that the Huntsman assignor for Crown Province was in the area. Neptune could feel for the man a little. His red frock coat, fingerless gloves and tall leather boots made him look like a pirate freshly arrived from the land of history books. His dress shirt and tie did nothing to help him in that department.
Jaune opened the door and they all bustled inside.
The hostess did a double take when she saw them.
"Jaune!" she shrilled, "I ain't seen your boys in a while!" She put down the empty tray she had been taking back to the kitchen on the nearest table, and walked to the front of the restaurant to shake their hands, "Where've you been?" she asked, shaking her curly red hair in emphasized delight.
Jaune smiled like an embarrassed school boy and looked around like he wanted something to lean on, " It's good to see you to, Fawn. We've kinda been all over the place: we put down a cult in Menagerie, tracked a Greater Amarok across southern Vale, killed Godzilla in the bay of Vacuo, hunted a Wendigo across northern Whitelake in the summer, and most recently we re-slept an Old God in the Central Ocean. We did a few smaller missions while we were in the area, and of course there are a few that are still classified. So… that's where we've been."
The hostess smile faltered a moment, and then grew to a greater size. "Well, ain't you been busy…" She said looking them each in the face and nodding, " Okay, Your assignor's in the stall down there." She tossed her head, "I gotta prepare for Rosaline's birthday party at three, but that's mostly done, so maybe I'll stop by and catch up a bit if you guys have the time, and I suppose it will be the usual for each of you?"
All four of the huntsmen nodded, and after the woman scurried back off to the kitchen, walked over to the assignor's booth, and took turns sliding into the small space.
The Hood Province Assignor, and Archassignor of NORTHCOM was a small mousey man, who always seemed to dress in the same antique suit, with thirty years worth of dust on the shoulders, matching his now streaked-with-gray hair, which he slicked back on his head. His rat's tail had long since been amputated, but he still flinched occasionally as if someone had just stepped on it. He was one of the twenty assignors hand picked by Oscar after the death of Salem, and was probably the best at his job. Even so, Jaune had a hard time meeting his staring black eyes. The man was unsettling.
Council LeBlanc sat there, in the booth, next to Ren, his little frame completely still except for his tiny hands which he would rub together compulsively, and blow on as if he were freezing, and stared at Jaune.
"So, you got my message?" He asked with a short puff on his hands, "Good, good. You know, I normally wouldn't call you over here during your vacation months, but this snake… I thought that you would want to see it for yourselves." He took a brief lap of coffee, "You've seen the pictures of Miller Farm of course," Here Jaune and Cardin nodded, "And you're probably thinking: why'd mad old LeBlanc call me down here on Code 7 for an extra large King Tajitu, send some rookie team, it would do them good." Here he nodded a bit as if he had made an especially good point. "But, there is a piece of evidence at the farm that I was hesitant to send over the Tower system. I sent it to Oscar of course but I didn't think more than once was good. We keep it at–,"
Here Jaune cut in, "Evidence?"
"Oh, yes," LeBlanc nodded, "Oh, yes. We're calling this one The Miller Farm Grimm, it's one of those… So I was hoping to take you out to the Farm to see what's up. The locals already know most of what happened down there, but I've prevented them from putting a funeral on until after you stop by to see what happened. And kill the Grimm of course."
"Of course," Neptune confirmed.
"What's this about the Millers?" The waitress asked, the only employee of the restaurant, a young girl with light blond hair and starkly blue eyes, setting her tray down at their table and beginning to lay out the food, "I thought Aur's crew would be sent. I was hoping to see him again." She twisted a ring on her left middle finger with her left pointer.
"Aur should be coming soon, Rosemary, but it turns out that this is a bigger job than we first thought." Jaune said, frowning.
The waitress nodded subduedly and gathered up her tray.
LeBlanc's expression had not changed, "It's good to hear about your boy, Arc, he's our future. But getting back to the topic, our high altitude reconnaissance gliders have tracked the Grimm south of Miller Farm towards Firebreak 6, heading south. The glider lost sight of it about five hours ago."
Cardin glared, "This is the part where you tell us that you deployed laughing gas in the town twenty minutes ago, and that's why we're not all dead yet."
"Not quite. The electric fence I asked for from the Chief Council seems to have been at least partially installed underground, or else Firewood is pumping some special sewage, because none of the accelerometers around town have sensed any superlarge motion yet."
"You better show us the house then," Jaune said, "ASAP,"
Ren and Neptune stood when LeBlanc stood.
"I was hoping you would say that."
Cardin's ancient pickup bounced down the dirt drive that cut off into the woods from the firebreak, hot in pursuit of the Assignor.
Dirt from the wheels thudded against the sides of the car and filtered light from the trees danced across the windshield. The smell of ozone and wet leaves filled Cardin's nose as he wrestled with the wheel to keep the truck on the road.
Miller Farm wasn't more than an hour away from the town but it was getting tiring to drive so recklessly for so long.
The luxury car in front of him suddenly began to stop, and Cardin had to pump the brakes to keep from rear ending it.
The doors on the truck popped open and shut and four huntsmen and a rat faunus stood in the middle of the road.
"The approaching drag marks begin here," LeBlanc said, rubbing his hands, "Follow me."
Jaune took off at a light jog after his scurrying form. They rustled their way down the roadbank and towards a roundish pile of dirt stretching out into a long smear roughly parallel to the road, broken saplings and tipped trees in its wake.
Cardin whistled, "A little bigger than it looked in the pictures,"
LeBlanc had already shuffled off down the river of mud, pointing out the occasional broken tree and puffing on his hands. ACRN followed.
"There are no clues apparent yet about any of this Grimm's unique qualities, for all we know it could merely be a large King Tajitu," LeBlanc noted, more to himself than to the trailing huntsman team, "But what we find most interesting is the positioning and manner of death of the Miller family and their animals at the scene", he said, as the sheet of dirt took a turn to the left, opening up a clear path directly to the quaint silos and farmhouse of the Miller farm.
They walked in silence until they came to the trio of silos south of the house, nearest to where the snake exited the forest. All of the silos were snapped and dented, as if the snake had struck through them on its way to the house. They found there, among the silos, Mr. Miller, his body twisted grotesquely as if it had been crushed by the Grimm on its way to the house, a rifle not far from his mangled, outstretched hand.
LeBlanc pulled his middle finger and nervously wobbled from side to side as the huntsmen took in the destruction around them.
"We do not believe that he was killed by being crushed." the Assignor said, "He was already dead for about twenty seconds before he was crushed. The gravel that slid under his body and the shape of the rifle and his hand indicate that he was still holding his rifle at his time of death."
Neptune nodded, he had already deduced as much.
"He died before the Grimm entered the clearing," Neptune said.
The Assignor's head snapped up, "Yes, we do believe that."
Neptune pointed out the fingers of Mr. Miller's right hand, curled on his sternum. "He died of a heart attack."
LeBlanc continued after puffing on his hands, "Yes, he did. Which by itself is not a remarkable event, but let me show you the house and the field."
He led them across the gravel to the side of the house and then through the gaping hole in the side of the house, pointing out the crushed children in the living room, and commenting on their 'uninteresting' deaths before leading the huntsmen out through the front door and showing them part of the second story that was launched out of the house by the thrashing of the monster.
A few wrecked beds lay strewn about the Miller's front lawn and a shattered bathtub lay still farther away, but near the beds there lay the figure of Mrs. Miller, her body lacerated and torn by gargantuan teeth, but her face peaceful as if she was sleeping when it happened.
"This is, by itself, interesting. How was she asleep when a Grimm was breaking trees nearby, and why didn't she wake up when she first heard it break the silos near her house?"
LeBlanc left the scene, and shuffled off towards the cornfield. ACRN trotted after him.
LeBlanc began pushing his way into the cornfield and didn't have to go far before he came to the family tractor, in the shadow of which lay the body of a young boy, curled into the fetal position, his hands crossed over his stomach.
LeBlanc puffed on his hands again, and rubbed them, "He has no interior or exterior wounds. He died of a heart attack, identical to his father's."
The woods of northern Anima are an isolating place. The wetness of the ground and air stifles sound and the trees block out the light. One could feel and be completely alone not 50 feet from the nearest town. There is a reason the woods are unharvested and topographically unmapped. To this day, even huntsmen don't come out of the dark belly of the forest.
Jaune plunged through the trees, chasing Ren as he tracked the burrow of the Grimm. They had traveled back to the Grimm's last known location, and found that the Grimm had burrowed underground. He and Ren had been able to track it by using their auras to sense for the hole underground, and so they continued in hot pursuit, Cardin and Neptune on their heels.
The path led up and down rocky hills, through low streams and across deer trails. ACRN found themselves racing up a dried streambed, jostling their ankles on rocks and sliding on slippery sheets of stone, only to reach the top of a ridge and have to trip their way down the loose earth on the other face of the ridge.
They trotted up saddles in low cliffs to power lines strung through the woods. They ran across steep slopes to find low valleys. Then finally, Ren came to a stop, and dropped his overcoat.
"It's right beneath us," He said, craning his neck to look up at the sloping valley walls on either side of them, and then down at the rocks and mud beneath his feet.
They had left the power lines behind a few hundred yards back. .
Neptune began to back away from the point where the other three had stopped, unslinging his weapon and taking up a crouching position. Jaune backed away as well.
"On the count of three," Jaune said, "Cardin will strike the ground, and discharge a rock dust crystal through the earth, and hopefully into the beast's head. Failing that, you all know the superlarge Grimm protocol."
Ren nodded and stayed where he was.
Cardin gave his mace a few practice swings around his head, before finally settling into a rhythm.
-Thum- The Executioner went around once.
Jaune settled into a crouch, and drew Crocea Mors.
-Thum- The Executioner went around twice.
"One," Jaune said, shifting his stance a little.
-Thum- The Executioner went around thrice.
Ren drew Stormflower and spun them in his hands. Neptune shrugged out of his oil frock.
"Two." Jaune said.
- Thum- The Executioner went around a fourth time.
Ren raised Stormflower to sight the faraway tree.
"Three," said Jaune, and The Executioner planted home in the dirt, a brief explosion launching a dust crystal deep into the ground.
There came a deep rumbling noise from the earth as the stone expanded rapidly, exploding into the underground layer and suddenly falling its fresh razor edges tearing and cutting anything in their way. A scream traveled back up along the stalactite length and echoed out clear and shrill into the valley.
Jaune cursed.
Then everything happened at once.
Ren launched his duck blades, pulling himself away from the stalactite and off into the forest just as the Grimm's massive head broke the surface, spraying soft loam, clay and rock fragments everywhere.
Jaune jumped forward with all his boosted might, driving his shield into the snake's jaw, just before it could bring it down towards Cardin.
The Grimm's head jerked backwards, into the trees around it, shivering and splintering them.
"Don't let it see you!" Jaune roared as it swung its head back around towards Cardin, who slid to the ground, swinging his mace up into the jaw of the monster, causing its head to crack back into a neutral position.
Jaune threw a gravity dust grenade at its head before it could try to look around again. It began to unravel from its hole, its great black and white girth pouring out into the fading daylight, its head pulled up by the force of the earth.
Neptune chose that moment to leap, propelled by the water around him, Tri-Hard extended into glaive form, its long point encased in electricity, and push his spear through the serpent's jaw and out through the top of its skull.
The serpent thrashed wildly, trying to free itself from Neptune, finally managing to toss him far towards the power lines.
Dead geese fell out of the sky and at Jaune's feet. Jaune checked his watch. Five and a half seconds since he had called three. Ren should be up there soon.
Suddenly, the snake's head changed direction. Right on time.
Neptune was probably already on the move.
Jaune raced towards Cardin, taking a flying leap just before reaching him. Cardin clubbed him in the back, sending him flying towards the impact point at unbelievable speeds. Crocea Mors glowed white with Aura, just before Jaune impacted the Grimm's upper neck, slicing from shoulder to hip.
The impact pushed the Grimm's head towards Neptune, who was rushing from the other direction, pushing with all his might, both watery and physical, to drive his glaive through the now scraped out eye sockets in the Grimm's head. Grimm snapped back in Jaune's direction pushing him back onto the ground. Neptune retracted Tri-Hard into gun form and fell next to Jaune. Ren tumbled off the Grimm's head to land next to them as it shivered there on the ground. A Thunderclap shook the valley as Cardin discharged a lightning dust crystal into the back of the snake, paralyzing it, and hopefully preventing any secondary heads it may have had from coming after them.
All of them whipped out their scrolls and began taking pictures and uploading them to a secure cloud server as soon as they noticed it begin to disintegrate. It wasn't long before they were again alone in the woods.
Jaune sheathed Crocea Mors and looked off into the woods, suddenly tired from his overcountry chase.
"I see why LeBlanc asked for us."
Neptune nodded.
Cardin jogged over, still holding his mace.
"They're evolving. This one might have killed a few towns before anyone competent enough encountered it."
Cardin brushed his beard with the back of his hand, "You left some coats back there."
Neptune looked down at his white dress shirt now stained with dirt and leaves and algae, and pocked with holes where rock shrapnel came through it, "Yeah,"
Ren still looked immaculate. He handed Jaune his gravity dust grenade back.
They wandered back to the hole, where Neptune and Ren picked up their jackets.
"I suppose we're going to have to clear the hole." Jaune said resignedly, after everyone had gathered around it for some navel gazing.
"Yeah," Cardin said.
Ren pulled his scroll out of his pants pocket and began texting.
"What's up?" Neptune asked him as Jaune and Cardin jumped into the hole.
"Just telling Nora we won't make it for breakfast tomorrow."
And they followed Jaune into the hole.
All Stations, this is MarchWarden. What'd you think? You want Home back? Oh, c'mon. I'm working on it. Either way. This time I won't make empty promises, either I'm around or I'm not. MarchWarden OUT.